The White House responds to Justin Bieber petition

"We won’t be commenting on this one"

Published April 21, 2014 3:01PM (EDT)

The White House may have been obligated to respond to a petition seeking to deport Justin Bieber, but that doesn't mean officials had to take it seriously: Taking the petition in the spirit it was written in, the White House essentially said "no comment" to the suggestion to send the pop singer back to Canada.

The White House is required to respond to any petition that garners 100,000 signatures; more than 250,000 signed the petition to deport Bieber. Here's the response from the White House:

Sorry to disappoint, but we won’t be commenting on this one.

The We the People terms of participation state that, “to avoid the appearance of improper influence, the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition."

So we'll leave it to others to comment on Mr. Bieber’s case, but we’re glad you care about immigration issues. Because our current system is broken. Too many employers game the system by hiring undocumented workers, and 11 million people are living in the shadows.

That status quo isn’t good for our economy or our country. We need common-sense immigration reform to make sure everyone plays by the same set of rules.

Not only is it the right thing to do morally, it’s the right thing for our country: Independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next 20 years. For those of you counting at home, that’s 12.5 billion concert tickets -- or 100 billion copies of Mr. Bieber’s debut album.


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

MORE FROM Prachi Gupta


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Canada Deportation Immigration Justin Bieber Pop Music White House